Chapter 178: Bad Vibes Octopus On A Quest!
The Bad Vibes Octopus was eating quite well, as there was a whole smattering of bad vibes surrounding its many appendages. To clarify, the bad vibes were its own.
Yes, every once in awhile the Bad Vibes Octopus would slip into such personal negativity that it would generate a plentiful helping of bad vibes, which of course the octopus would immediately consume. Consume, however, was a bit of a sore word with the Bad Vibes Octopus presently.
One of the big issues for the Bad Vibes Octopus was that it had originally felt a promise that the consumer that planned on eating the world while possessing the undead skeleton body of Frank would keep it around, perhaps as a pet. A gig as a familiar to a world ending monstrosity was like a dream come true for a Bad Vibes Octopus. Now, there had been no formal promise that this would come to pass - only instead the Bad Vibes Octopus had simply basked in and enjoyed perching on the skeleton's boney shoulder as if it were serving some grand, higher purpose. That is, it had, until the consumer had grown impatient with the pop, pop, popping of its suction cups and ripped the Bad Vibe Octopus from its body, tossing it asunder like yesterday's news-scroll. Its excuse had been that the octopus would keep it from progressing.
Clearly, it was not all that concerned with keeping its [abilities] under wraps in any way, shape or form. Instead, the Bad Vibes Octopus only wanted more fuel in the form taumans to consume and with that, more powerful [abilities]. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and in fact was very in keeping with the understood psychology of a consumer as far as it was understood in Nomachiato, but it wasn't a good thing either. Funny how the mind of a Bad Vibes Octopus functioned, the thought of good things made the Bad Vibes Octopus ponder good days.
A good day? The Bad Vibes Octopus had a bit of a moment of epiphany. The last time the Bad Vibes Octopus had truly had a good day was when they had been in the depths of the Pit of Despair, and that meddlesome sea cucumber kept just spitting out plenty of vibes, good or otherwise. And of course, good vibes displaced bad vibes, but somehow... the Bad Vibes Octopus wasn't entirely certain whether it cared.
But it knew that if it ever wanted to see that middling-vibe sea cucumber again, the Bad Vibes Octopus needed to get the hell out of dodge. That is to say that it needed to get out off the presently apocalyptic streets of downtown Gifflenberg and back to the Purple Sea as soon as possible.
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Herahld Ghibblets was having a very bad day.
Which was just as well. His apartment building had just been leveled to ashes in mere instants by a bizarre, floating alien, and he'd been none the wiser until he turned down his street to see but a pile of rubble in its wake.
Of course, it could've been far worse. Herahld could've perished himself in the building's implosion, just like many other tenants of his apartment complex. However, all that said, he was still quite burnt up about his building, well, burning up.
But, the way Herahld saw it, it was just one crappy event in a long line of misfortune that spanned his whole life. Starting from the moment he was born, it had seemed to Herahld like life was out to get him. He'd been born with living wood growing in his lungs, a very rare disorder that required immediate operation. He ended up being fine, but still - it was a bad start to an unfortunate life.
Soon after that, he was about two years old and started speaking. This was generally a bad decision in his opinion, as some of the things he'd say would cause him to be scolded - and Herahld detested being scolded.
When Herahld was three, he sprained his arm, and the wrist joint made a small clicking noise ever since due to a small amount of extra room for air bubbles to form. Herahld felt inexplicably compelled to pop this thrice a day at minimum.
When Herahld was four, his parents died in a horse and buggy accident subsequent to a morning spat he'd gotten into with them. That is to say, he told them he hated them and their presence, and then that same afternoon they died in a horse and buggy accident when they collided with a transport caravan for fried crisps.
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Herahld's parents decided to come back from the afterlife to raise him as undead skeletons, despite worldly prejudice against such arrangements. They were so happy to see him, but from that day he still considered himself an orphan, and would often complain about how boney their countenances were.
There were countless other things that either happened to Herahld, or that he perceived happening to himself, or otherwise that to Herahld just read as bad and wrong for whatever reason. All that said, he practically radiated bad vibes at all times.
And so it was that, as Herahld stood there, jaw wide open, gnats flying in and out, he stared in awe at his destroyed apartment building. And then he heard a pop, pop, popping that drew his attention downward to the sidewalk.
"By the gods! A damned octopus? What the hell has this city gone to?" he cried with disgust. "Why, I'm probably allergic to octopi. Another smite from the gods themselves, I say!"
The Bad Vibes Octopus did not know how to respond to such detestations, so it did not - save for to make a soft cooing noise. This want not entirely intentional, in fact it was completely unintentional and involuntary. It was a guttural response from the copious consumption of all of Herahld's bad vibes, of which there seemed to be an endless fount of. Indeed, even just the noises and movements of the Bad Vibes Octopus produced a veritable cornucopia of ill effects to feed off of, all being generated by Herahld. Herahld must've been an incredibly gifted vibes mage, the Bad Vibes Octopus decided then and there.
"Go on, get out of here! I've just lost my one and only home! My tea towel collection was in there, and now it's gone!! I had heirlooms from my terribly awful family that I hate in there. How am I supposed to deal with the pain I'm in right now? The heartache? Gods, did you even know I'm an orphan, you terrible little octopus?"
All these detestations indeed only made the Bad Vibes Octopus that much happier with Herahld. After all, with every complaint came even more bad vibes, so many bad vibes that the octopus was truly spoiled for choice at what all to eat. It was great - after all, the Bad Vibes Octopus had been eating its own bad vibes for a while now. It was almost like going from eating canned beans to a five course dinner, and the Bad Vibes Octopus was all for it.
"Well, now that I have no home, and apparently all of Gifflenberg has gone to utter shit-" Herahld gestured to the smoke covered skies above, the destroyed skyline, and the fires burning in the distance, "-I guess the only thing for me to do is throw myself into the Purple Sea and hope I never come back up!"
The Bad Vibes Octopus was even happier at this, confusingly enough to Herahld.
"Oh, oh course you'd want to go to the Purple Sea, you're a damned octopus. Gods, I must've been cursed with stupidity, too, for something so obvious," groaned Herahld as he sat down on the sidewalk and sighed. "Fuck my fucking life. Maybe I will actually go to the Purple Sea. Looks like the world's about to fucking end, anyways."
With that, the Bad Vibes Octopus - much to Herahld's chagrin - clambered and climbed up his leg and torso, eventually to perch on his shoulder like a sort of aquatic parrot. Herahld clearly hated this, but all the negativity he radiated at the Bad Vibes Octopus only generated more delicious vibes for the Bad Vibes Octopus to indeed devour with glee.
But Herahld only had a brief moment or so of time before something far more troubling than a vibe-eating octopus was there to win his ire. That is to say, only a couple blocks away, a large beam of blinding blue light erupted like a geyser into the air, higher and higher without a seeming end.
"What in the fucking hell?" Herahld gasped and shivered as he watched boney beasts swarm out of the light, looking ready to attack. "What the fuck are those things? Is that a fucking giant perforation or something?"
Herahld didn't take a moment more to wonder what was going on, he struggled to his feet and started running and rushing over to his motorbike as fast as possible. Of course the damn thing took three tries to start, and backfired like its engine had eaten a bunch of explosive beans, but sooner rather than later he and the Bad Vibes Octopus were zooming with a whirring hum down the near empty streets of downtown Gifflenberg. As was at this point normal, the Bad Vibes Octopus was enjoying a delicious helping of bad vibes from Herahld, who seemed like he was one bad event away from a tried and true breakdown.
All that said, they were putting good distance between themselves and the boney monsters, and soon enough the beasts seemed to be getting distracted with something else.
"Fucking thank gods," said Herahld. "So bullshit that I don't have a system in times like this. I'd be toast in a fight. But life is bullshit for me, anyway."
With a terrible screech, a boney something - it looked almost like a young bone dragon, but Herahld couldn't rightly tell because he didn't have a system - swooped down and snatched up both Herahld and consequently the Bad Vibes Octopus in its dread talons. Clearly, they hadn't made as effective an escape as Herahld had hoped.